Footasylum Boosts Delivery Speed and Cuts Shipping Costs by 8% Through Customer Insights

Slow and missed deliveries during peak season led to a decline in key business metrics

Footasylum knew that a customer’s delivery experience was an integral part of the retail experience. According to research, 85% of online buyers consider that a bad delivery experience would prevent them from ordering from that retailer again. Without a way of understanding delivery issues, there was a real chance that Footasylum would never get another chance to make a good first impression.

That’s why - when James McGhee joined Footasylum as Director of Customer Experience - he knew that good delivery improves customer loyalty and brand perception. He was focused on creating a reliable customer feedback loop that would help Footasylum to address and resolve operational issues as quickly as possible.

“Early on, we concentrated on addressing customer feedback related to returns, refunds, and delivery issues, as these problems had the highest likelihood of generating customer contact. We discovered that the speed of delivery was frequently highlighted as a major issue, so we made this a priority in our business strategy to improve our key business metrics,” says James.

However, collaborating with third-party carriers to address these delivery issues proved to be a major challenge. James and his team struggled to quantify how missed or late deliveries by individual carriers were impacting their critical business metrics.

“Although carriers were satisfied with a 97% delivery rate, the remaining 3% of missed orders had a substantial financial impact on Footasylum. We lacked the tools and data needed to show that carriers were not meeting their obligations. Proving the true impact of final mile delivery to our carriers was a significant challenge,” he adds.

As James observed increasing contact volumes and declining Trustpilot ratings, he realized that monitoring quantitative feedback alone wouldn’t resolve the issue. He needed to analyze large volumes of unstructured customer feedback and leverage technology to gain actionable insights.

“By analyzing review and NPS scores without looking at the detailed, verbatim feedback, we were missing out on these critical insights. This approach helped me clearly demonstrate the need for a comprehensive feedback analytics solution to our leadership team,” says James.

Customer insights uncover key delivery issues and enhance operational efficiency at Footasylum

Footasylum chose Chattermill for its capability to centralize customer feedback, analyze large volumes of data efficiently, and detect subtle details that the team might otherwise miss.

“Chattermill allowed us to unify all our feedback data from NPS surveys, CSAT responses, and Trustpilot reviews, and then quickly spot a theme and identify a problem across thousands of comments. The platform was well-priced, met our needs perfectly, and had a straightforward, hassle-free commercial approach,” says James.

With Chattermill in place, James focused on identifying instances of missed or late deliveries by individual carriers. During the analysis, one carrier stood out because of its poor performance, significantly impacting Footasylum's crucial 'deliver-to-promise' score, which tracked whether deliveries were made within the promised four business days.

“We observed that parcels took an average of 6.8 days to arrive when they were delayed, which required immediate attention. We began by analyzing the operational data for this carrier, including delivery times, the financial impact of late deliveries, and the value of lost parcels.”

Next, Footasylum used Chattermill to generate comprehensive reports that highlighted how negative feedback about this carrier impacted their critical business metrics.

“Combining Chattermill feedback with our Trustpilot scores, we found that 102 out of 785 one-star reviews directly mentioned this underperforming carrier. Of these reviews, over a half specifically mentioned 'no delivery.' We discovered that in FY22, these negative reviews contributed to a significant drop in our Trustpilot score - from 4.2 to 3.9,” he adds.

“I was able to sit down with some very senior people there and show them very easily the impact that they were having on our business. Having this data changed the relationship with our delivery company forever. It certainly has put us in the driving seat - now we can articulate exactly how they impact our customer experience.”

Reduced shipping costs by 8%, 97% delivery-to-promise score

James and his team were now able to clearly present their analysis and results at the quarterly review meeting with the carrier’s representatives. They used customer feedback and Chattermill reports to renegotiate the contract with the carrier.

“We leveraged the data to push for reduced pricing, additional services, and more reliable performance. For instance, we negotiated lower per-parcel rates, reducing shipping costs by 8% for that specific provider,” says James.

Finally, by addressing critical issues with this carrier, the team greatly enhanced the customer experience. This led to fewer customer inquiries, better product ratings, and a positive impact on their brand reputation.

“Addressing our biggest customer concerns has not only restored trust but also significantly improved our key business metrics. We've reduced contacts per transaction by 42%, from 0.28 to 0.16. Our Trustpilot rating has risen from 3.9 to 4.4, leading to a notable increase in 5-star reviews. Today, we maintain a consistently high NPS of 80. Chattermill has been instrumental in achieving these results and keeping us connected with our customers.”